The stat used by the Scottish Government is from an Office for National Statistics report which had a warning at the top saying data was not certified as “National Statistics” - due to the numbers coming from small sample.

The figures quoted Scottish Government are from a very small Scottish sub-sample of UK-wide figures, meaning they aren’t certified as National Statistics.

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Separate data published by the ONS, known as the Annual Population Survey, is based on a Scottish sample around 3x bigger. This is the official National Statistics measure of youth unemployment in Scotland.

Dr Stuart McIntyre, from impartial think-tank the Fraser of Allander Institute, lashed out at the “misuse” of figures after Finance Secretary Derek Mackay’s officials hailed a 0.3 per cent drop in the 16-24 unemployment rate.

Dr Stuart McIntyre tweeted the following in reply:

“STOP USING THE LFS DATA FOR THIS. You know full well that number comes from a TINY sample and that there is a much better and more reliable estimate of youth unemployment also released this morning. It shows youth (16-24) unemployment up 0.9% points over the year. Enough already.”

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“Presuming (?) that this is an account run by the civil service, to put this out like this is truly shocking.”

Conclusion

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Dr McIntrye has told The Scottish Sun newspaper that the Scottish Government were using “low quality data when they have a higher quality alternative”. Clearly highlighting the fact the Scottish Government were playing loose with the facts in order to hide the real figures.